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Ivory Coast. The three rivers.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

The two ethnic groups of the Agni-Baulé in Ivory Coast have developed a particular cosmogony, a ritual and social system that deserves interest and sometimes admiration. Through legends, the Agni-Baule explain their origin.

With a population of over 27.5 million, Côte d’Ivoire has around sixty ethnic groups. The Agni – Baulé belong to the large Akan group, originating from present-day Ghana.
According to tradition, the Akan left their ancestral lands in northern Ghana to settle in the gold-rich forests of the south. Gold was used in many ways among the Akan. On the one hand, it was used for the sumptuous ornaments of the chiefs and constituted the family or royal treasure. On the other hand, it was a currency necessary for the purchase of wool from Sudan (now Mali) and dried fish from Niger.
Underlying political problems and greed for the precious metal, a sacred symbol of power, caused numerous internal wars, giving power to the nucleus of Ghana’s Ashanti (concentrated around their capital, Kumasi), while the defeated factions were forced to look for new lands elsewhere. Those who moved west (the current territory of Ivory Coast), reached the Comoé River, also settling in the plains near the Bandama River. This portion of immigrants is today known as the Agni and Baulé.

Baulé Mask. There are eight Baulé subgroups. CC0/ Clevelandart Museum

According to oral tradition, the first settlers of this migratory flow, led by the warrior chief Brindu, settled with the name of Agni Diabe (Djuablin) in the region of Assikasso, today known as Agnibilékru. The first camps, and later the first Agni villages, were established in this region.
The ethnologists Delafosse and Tauxier define the Agni complex as an ethnic conglomerate, whose main components are the Diablé or Djuablin, the N’dénié, the Sanwi or Brafé, the Moronu, the Ano, the Bini, the Bétié, the Bona and the Abi. The Agni are known not only for their great agricultural tradition but also for their love of gold. Indeed, gold panning is still one of their main occupations on several rivers that pass through the country.
As for the Baulé, while maintaining ties with the Agni through their historical origins and a common language, they are the least culturally faithful of the Akan. This is partly explained by the influx of blood from other ethnic groups since they settled in the heart of the Ivorian savannahs. These peoples include the Alanguira or Denkyéra, who settled around 1700 and then became part of the kingdom of Baulé, the Guro or Kuéni, the Senufo and the Malinké. There are eight Baulé subgroups: the four free ones are the Uarebo, the Sâafué, the Fâfué and the N’zipri. They are accompanied by four vassal families: the Aitu, the Nananfué, the N’gban and the Agba, who found their homogeneity under the reign of the legendary queen Abla Poku.

Three River Deities
The traditional religions of Agni-Baulé can be divided into the religion of the land (celebrated by farmers in the plains and mountainous areas), the religion of pastoralism and the religion of water (Tanoé, Bia, Comoé, N’Zi, etc.). Around this theme, the Agni-Baulé have developed a particular cosmogony, a ritual and social system that deserves interest and sometimes admiration. Through a legend, the Agni-Baule explain their origin.Bia, Eholié and Tanoé are three rivers, three gods, three brothers born from the same mother and three enemies. Bia was the oldest and Tanoé the youngest. During childhood, they did not receive the same amount of affection from their elderly, blind mother.
Despite being the eldest, Bia was shy, but obedient and docile, and much loved by his mother.

Comoé River. CC BY-SA 4.0/ ETF89

Eholié, the middle child, was very fond of the old goddess. As for Tanoé, cunning, insolent and vain, he spent all his time arguing in public meetings. Gambling was his only concern.
Death, always implacable – even for the gods – came to the old woman who decided to divide her fortune among her children. She called them one after another into her smoke-filled cabin. First, she called Bia. The door opened and closed again: “My son, may God give you health, fortune and glory for all the favours you have done me in my old age. Leave this region today and go and settle southeast of the great lake. You will thus serve as a common god to two strong peoples: the Agni-Brafé and the Ashanti. You will be the object of endless worship. Great quantities of pure gold, flocks of white sheep and all the riches that men possess will come to your altar as a sign of submission and recognition. You will be the most glorious of all your companions. Go, my son. May the Almighty bless you.
The goddess took leave of her beloved son, after blessing him. Then it was the turn of the middle one. Eholié – said the old and blind mother -, death has taken me. I have little time left to live. Gather your things and go settle in Siman Forest. You loved me with infinite love. You will be marked forever with the sign of mourning that will remind you of my death. No impure woman, no funeral convoy will cross your bed. You will be a singular but feared god. The humans will trust your vigilance and offer you black goats and rams from their herds. The Brafé rulers will choose you as protector of their kingdom and will keep your commandments. In difficulties as in triumphs, you will lend a hand to Bia, your older brother.”

Baulé Mask. Bia, Eholié and Tanoé are three rivers, three gods, three brothers born from the same mother and three enemies. CC0/ Moon Mask MET

The goddess took leave of her beloved son, after embracing and blessing him. She didn’t bother calling the ungrateful Tanoé. However, the door opened: “Mother, God bless you – said a nearby voice. I just returned from the pier where I was waiting for the fishermen to arrive.”
“Who is he? “- asked the blind old woman, who lay on her bed, shaken by the anguish and suffering of death.
“I am Bia, your dearest son,” said the voice at the door. “Why haven’t you gone to your kingdom yet?” The anguished goddess asked. “I have no kingdom, mother,” the voice again replied. “But who did I talk to just now? Wasn’t it the evil Tanoé?” With what little strength she had left, she called out: “Tanoé! Tanoé! Tanoé!” But no one answered. Then she noticed that Tanoé was gone. “Yes, he is the one I gave my all; it is to Tanoé that I have bequeathed all my treasure.” The old woman shed her last tears of sorrow. To the best of her three sons, the one who had served her, their mother could only bequeath the least, the part that brought no glory. And she died of sorrow.
Bia went to tell his misfortune to his younger brother. Eholié was furious and promised him help and protection against Tanoé. Bia had occupied the cursed territory that should have belonged to Tanoé and so it became the river that drains impurities and is never invoked. But the Eholié-Bia alliance is eternal. Today, under penalty of shipwreck and being devoured by a crocodile, it is strictly forbidden to pronounce the name of Tanoé when sailing on Bia or Eholié.

The River Comoé and the Legend of Baulé
Located on the banks of the forest and savannah, the Baulé people have a history inseparable from the Comoé River, the longest in Ivory Coast
at 1,160 kilometres.
This river is a promise of freshness, especially when it is possible to navigate its waters in the shade of the trees, whose shapes, heights and thicknesses vary depending on the region. Its waters are a source of life: they contain fish that are sometimes sacred in a country with an animist majority, and even hippos and crocodiles.The latter have a discreet presence, as seen in some legends of the Baulé people.

Baulé Mask. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin

In fact, after having undergone the domination of the Denkyéra – this kingdom exercised its authority over much of what is now southern Ghana – during the 17th century, the Ashanti, under the leadership of Oséi Tutu, organized themselves by founding the city of Kumasi. Having settled north-east of the kingdom of Denkyéra, in 1695 they made Kumasi the centre of a new power. The warlike vocation of the Ashanti kingdom was immediately evident. During Oséi Tutu’s approximately thirty-year reign, several victorious expeditions were undertaken against the Doma, Denkyéra, and Akim kingdoms.Around 1731, after the death of Oséi Tutu, a succession conflict between two of his grandsons, Apoku Waré and Dakon, nearly destroyed the Ashanti kingdom. In the end, the former won and the followers of the defeated pretender migrated westward. Finding the eastern region of present-day Ivory Coast occupied by their Agni cousins, they decided, under the leadership of Queen Abla Poku, to continue westward, until they encountered the Comoé River, which stopped them. But not for long.
This is where legend meets history. The total absence of bridges and the immensity of the river forced the queen to seek the favours of the water gods. After some prayers to the spirits of the river, the sorcerers revealed to the queen that to cross it it was necessary to make a sacrifice. For this, chickens, rams, gold and all the riches that the queen possessed were offered. But the gods did not accept them, since they still asked for more. They asked for something of great importance from the queen… the sacrifice of her only son.

Located on the banks of the forest and savannah, the Baulé people have a history inseparable from the Comoé River, the longest in Ivory Coast at 1,160 kilometres. Filr swm

To save her people, the queen sacrificed her son and suddenly hippos came out in a line on whose backs the queen, her court and her servants passed. The latter, not having the right to attend the sacred ceremonies, did not know of the death of the crown prince. When they noticed his absence on the road, they inquired about him. In response, and according to the current version of this legend, the queen said bauli, meaning “the son is dead”. Hence the name that this people would take, with the modification to baulé made by the French colonizers.
Having no grandchildren, it was Ak’va Boni, the queen’s nephew, who succeeded him around 1760. The Baulé formed a large kingdom around Sakassu, which remained in a centralized form for about 50 years. Until the first half of the 19th century, there was a single throne that exercised absolute authority over all the Baulé. But then this authority weakened and was replaced by that of the leaders of the eight tribes that make up the Baulé nation. (Open Photo: from left: CC BY-SA 4.0/ Mickey Mystique – CC BY-SA 4.0/Isabelle Ferreira Cult – CC0/ Daderot) – (J-A.Y.)

Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), total global military expenditure reached $2443 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8 per cent in real terms from 2022. This was the steepest year-on-year increase since 2009. The 10 largest spenders in 2023 – led by the United States, China and Russia – all increased their military spending,

World military expenditure rose for the ninth consecutive year to an all-time high of $2443 billion. For the first time since 2009, military expenditure went up in all five of the geographical regions defined by SIPRI, with particularly large increases recorded in Europe, Asia and Oceania and the Middle East.
“The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security,” said Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. “States are prioritizing military strength but they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical
and security landscape.”

123rf

Russia’s military spending increased by 24 per cent to an estimated $109 billion in 2023, marking a 57 per cent rise since 2014, the year that Russia annexed Crimea.
In 2023 Russia’s military spending made up 16 per cent of total government spending and its military burden (military spending as a share of gross domestic product, GDP) was 5.9 per cent.
In the same way, Ukraine was the eighth largest spender in 2023, after a spending surge of 51 per cent to reach $64.8 billion. This gave Ukraine a military burden of 37 per cent and represented 58 per cent of total government spending.
Ukraine’s military spending in 2023 was 59 per cent the size of Russia’s. However, Ukraine also received at least $35 billion in military aid during the year, including $25.4 billion from the USA. Combined, this aid and Ukraine’s own military spending were equivalent to about 91 per cent
of Russian spending.

USA and NATO
In 2023 the 31 NATO members accounted for $1341 billion, equal to 55 per cent of the world’s military expenditure. Military spending by the USA rose by 2.3 per cent to reach $916 billion in 2023, representing 68 per cent of total NATO military spending. In 2023 most European NATO members increased their military expenditure. Their combined share of the NATO total was 28 per cent, the highest in a decade. The remaining 4 per cent came from Canada and Türkiye.

A Bradley Fighting Vehicle. U.S. Army/Pfc. Santiago Lepper

“For European NATO states, the past two years of war in Ukraine have fundamentally changed the security outlook,” said Lorenzo Scarazzato, Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. “This shift in threat perceptions is reflected in growing shares of GDP being directed towards military spending, with the NATO target of 2 per cent increasingly being seen as a baseline rather than a threshold to reach.’
A decade after NATO members formally committed to a target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on the military, 11 out of 31 NATO members met or surpassed this level in 2023 – the highest number since the commitment was made. Another target – of directing at least 20 per cent of military spending to ‘equipment spending’ – was met by 28 NATO members in 2023, up from 7 in 2014.
Poland’s military spending, the 14th highest in the world, was $31.6 billion after growing by 75 per cent between 2022 and 2023 – by far the largest annual increase by any European country.

China’s rising military expenditure
China, the world’s second-largest military spender, allocated an estimated $296 billion to the military in 2023, an increase of 6.0 per cent from 2022. This was the 29th consecutive year-on-year rise in China’s military expenditure.

Chinese warship on the background of the flag. Shutterstock/FOTOGRIN

China accounted for half of total military spending across the Asia and Oceania region. Several of China’s neighbours have linked their own spending increases to China’s rising military expenditure.
Japan allocated $50.2 billion to its military in 2023, which was 11 per cent more than in 2022. Taiwan’s military expenditure also grew by 11 per cent in 2023, reaching $16.6 billion. India was the fourth largest military spender globally in 2023. At $83.6 billion, its military expenditure was 4.2 per cent higher than in 2022.

War and Tensions in the Middle East
Estimated military expenditure in the Middle East increased by 9.0 per cent to $200 billion in 2023. This was the highest annual growth rate in the region seen in the past decade.
Israel’s military spending – the second largest in the region after Saudi Arabia – grew by 24 per cent to reach $27.5 billion in 2023.

Israeli Army troops on the Israel-Gaza border.iStock/chameleonseye

The spending increase was mainly driven by Israel’s large-scale offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel by Hamas in October 2023. Iran was the fourth largest military spender in the Middle East in 2023 with $10.3 billion. According to available data, the share of military spending allocated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps grew from 27 per cent to 37 per cent between 2019 and 2023.
In North Africa, Algeria’s military spending grew by 76 per cent to reach $18.3 billion. This was the highest level of expenditure ever recorded by Algeria and was largely due to a sharp rise in revenue from gas exports to countries in Europe as they moved away from Russian supplies.

Central America and the Caribbean
Military spending in Central America and the Caribbean in 2023 was 54 per cent higher than in 2014. Escalating crime levels have led to the increased use of military forces against criminal gangs in several countries in the sub-region.Military spending by the Dominican Republic rose by 14 per cent in 2023 in response to worsening gang violence in neighbouring Haiti. The Dominican Republic’s military spending has risen steeply since 2021 when the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse threw Haiti into crisis.

Mexican army soldiers in Chiapas, Mexico. Shutterstock/ photoshooter

In Mexico, military expenditure reached $11.8 billion in 2023, a 55 per cent increase from 2014 (but a 1.5 per cent decrease from 2022). Allocations to the Guardia Nacional (National Guard) – a militarized force used to curb criminal activity – rose from 0.7 per cent of Mexico’s total military expenditure in 2019, when the force was created, to 11 per cent in 2023.“The use of the military to suppress gang violence has been a growing trend in the region for years as governments are either unable to address the problem using conventional means or prefer immediate – often more violent – responses,’ said Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.In South America, in 2023 Brazil’s military spending increased by 3.1 per cent to $22.9 billion.
Citing the NATO spending guideline, members of Brazil’s Congress submitted a constitutional amendment to the Senate in 2023 that aims to increase Brazil’s military burden to an annual minimum of 2 per cent of GDP (up from 1.1 per cent in 2023).
In Sub-Saharan African countries, the largest percentage increase in military spending by any country in 2023 was seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (+105 per cent), where there has been protracted conflict between the government and non-state armed groups. South Sudan recorded the second largest percentage increase (+78 per cent) amid internal violence and spillover from the Sudanese civil war. (Open Photo: Military Drone.123rf ) – (Sipri)

How to stem the progress of Jihad.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

Nouakchott has not suffered large-scale attacks for 12 years. There are three reasons: collaboration with neighbouring countries, the intervention of religious authorities and having “institutionalised” the demands of Islamist parties and movements.

The Sahel is an endemically poor region and Mauritania struggled significantly after independence, to achieve economic development that lived up to expectations. Over the last 5 years, the country’s GDP has grown by 5% on average and according to more recent estimates, it should even reach 8% this year. This remarkable economic development is the result of two characteristics of the country’s geopolitics in relation to the main trends in the region. Firstly, in an almost proportional relationship between the two components: the more the instability of the Sahel region has worsened in the last 10 years, the more Mauritania has emerged as a happy island.

Putting the brakes on terrorism
The first factor of three which have secured Mauretania from large scale terrorist attacks is the country’s institutions successfully collaborating with the institutions of Morocco and Algeria. The second is the deradicalization campaign carried out by the political and religious authorities, thanks to the training of dozens of religious leaders, to respond to jihadist propaganda.

The Great “Friday Mosque” in Chinguetti town in northern Mauritania. File swm

Finally, and most importantly, the Mauritanian political debate has managed to institutionalize the demands of Islamist parties and movements. The foundation of parties such as the Rassemblement Nationale pour la Réforme et le Développement (RNRD) has made an important contribution in this sense.
Simply put, by guaranteeing the possibility of advancing certain demands peacefully and countering the propaganda of terrorists, Jihad has progressively lost its appeal in Mauritania.

A Force for Stability
Internal stability has increased Mauritania’s role at the regional level. The increasing instability in the Sahel has allowed Nouakchott to emerge as a barrier to migration and systemic collapse for Europe, a role exercised in tandem with Niger until the Niamey coup last July. Capitalizing on this new perception, Mauritanian authorities have made diplomatic efforts to promote regional stability.

The gates of Nouakchott City Hall. iStock/mtcurado

Nouakchott acted in concert with Chadian authorities to avert the collapse of the G5 Sahel, with little success. While Mauritania left the ECOWAS in 2000, it maintained solid relations with the regional community which culminated in the signing of an association agreement in 2017. Even after the coup in Niger in July, the Ghazouani presidency continued to strengthen cross-border cooperation with Senegal and Mali. Energy cooperation projects for the development of solar energy have also been launched with Bamako.
In a region characterized by the return of military authoritarianism, Mauritania is today the only Sahelian country led by an elected government, presided over by Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, leader of the El Insaf party. The transition to democratic government was not free from moments of great complexity and, above all, from the need to combine economic development with the overcoming of some archaic customs present in Mauritanian society and the fight against corruption.
On the economic level, Ghazouani played a more proactive role in the country’s development and modernization policies, continuing along the lines of the policies started by his predecessor. The fight against corruption has continued with illustrious victims, including former president Ould Abdel Aziz, sentenced last December to 5 years in prison. With regards to the abolition of slavery (officially outlawed in 1981), the government has broadened the area in which the rules must be applied against the phenomenon (including, for example, child labour), but difficulties still remain in the effective implementation of these laws and slavery is still practiced in rural areas of the country.

Mauritania is today the only Sahelian country led by an elected government. File swm

Energy remains one of the driving factors behind Mauritania’s centrality for regional balances. Between 2014 and 2015, vast gas deposits were discovered on the maritime border with Senegal which Nouakchott wants to exploit both to satisfy internal demand and to enter fully the regional hydrocarbon market. Within this year, Mauritania will begin extracting natural gas from the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) field, for which 4.8 billion dollars have been invested. The GTA, managed by the English British Petroleum (BP) and the American Kronos, has a production capacity of 15 trillion cubic feet of gas and in the first extraction phase (which should last until 2025) will be capable of producing 2. 5 million tons of gas per year.

The legendary iron ore train of Mauritania. iStock/Jon_Johnnidis

In addition to the extraction of its own natural resources, Mauritania also aims to become a strategic hub for the West African energy market by taking advantage of its geographical location. Under the aegis of Cedeao, in September 2022 the energy companies of Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco signed an agreement of intent for the construction of the Gas Atlantic Pipeline (Gap). The Gap should connect Nigerian fields to Morocco and potentially reach European markets via Spain. The project involves the construction of 7 thousand kilometres of infrastructure with the capacity to transport approximately 3 billion cubic meters of gas per day passing through 13 African states.
This enormous and very fast process of economic development which involves a country hitherto considered endemically poor is not without its grey areas. Despite the positive results achieved by Mauritania, there is growing dissatisfaction among the population with the democratic system in the country. According to a July 2022 survey conducted by Afrobarometer, more than 70% of the population are not satisfied with the current regime and do not consider Mauritania a true democracy. This data highlights the challenge of combining modernization with the equitable redistribution of gas revenues. (Photo: Jihadist fighter. Shutterstock/Getmilitaryphotos)

Luciano Pollichieni

Uganda. The King. Looking for a wife.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

The marriage of the Kabaka of Buganda renews his royal status. We look at how the king goes through this process.

The Buganda Kingdom of the Baganda tribe, which is known to be the largest and most powerful traditional kingdom, is found in Central Uganda. Buganda Kingdom was founded in the 13th Century under the first king (Kabaka) Kato Kintu, it is a monarchy and the crown is hereditary. The kingdom is represented by 52 clans, which make up the Baganda tribe. According to tradition, the Kabaka has the right to marry any girl or woman he desires in the kingdom and a saying state, “Bazaana/muzaana wa Kabaka” which means the woman, or slave, of the Kabaka.It is said that in Buganda all women belong to the Kabaka, whether she is married or not is irrelevant. If the Kabaka desires a married woman, her husband is supposed to hand her to him gladly and also be proud that his wife has been chosen by the Kabaka.

The Kabaka Palace in Kampala. CC BY-SA 3.0/ NatureDan

In Buganda, clan members are not necessarily related by blood but they are considered relatives so the Kabaka cannot marry anyone from his mother’s clan nor can he marry a woman from the Bbalagira (Royal) clan which is his clan and he is also not allowed to marry any Naava (daughter of a mumbejja – Princess) because that would be considered incest, which is an abomination in Buganda.
In the past the Kabaka of Buganda had many women, some were captured as prisoners of war and brought to the Kabaka. He would choose the women he desired and they would then be given to him as gifts. Some of his Bataaka (officers) would also offer him their daughters as gifts because they wanted to be in-laws (Baako) of the Kabaka.
Apart from all his women and concubines, he was supposed to have an official wife who is called the Nnabagereka (Chief wife). The marriage of the Kabaka differs from the one of his subjects or the Bakoopi (commoners) as they are referred to.

His Majesty Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II. Photo Kabaka Office

There are a few rituals and customs carried out before the Kabaka can get his Nnabagereka. First of all, a young girl has to be identified by either the Katikiro (Prime Minister) or one of his confidants living in the Lubiri (Palace) but the Kabaka can also choose one of his own likings. As a matter of fact, the current Nnabagereka, Lady Sylvia Nagginda, from the Muusu clan (edible rat clan), was chosen by the Kabaka himself. The first requirement for the future Nnabagereka is that she must be a virgin.In the past, once the date and day of Kabaka’s marriage was announced, all his subjects all over the kingdom were supposed to abstain from sex with their wives and lovers until the Kabaka had gotten married and consummated his marriage after which the ban was lifted.
The current Kabaka Ronald Maenad Mutebi is a modern-day Kabaka and he did not impose this ban on his subjects. After the girl has been chosen for marriage to the Kabaka, the Kkatikiro and the Bambejja (princesses) will do what they call okulinga (the first visit to the would-be Nnabagereka’s family).
For the Bakoopi this first visit is referred to as Okukyala. The reasons for the Kkatikiro and Bambejja’s visit to the girl’s parents are, to ensure that the girl is fit to be the official wife of the Kabaka and also to see the kind of family the Kabaka would be marrying into. They then return to the Kabaka with the report and if the girl is approved of, another visit is made to the girl’s parents to bring them gifts.
Okulalira takes place when the Kkatikiro and his entourage return to the girl’s home carrying special gifts. The gifts are referred to as endalira.

Her Royal Highness the Nnabagereka (Queen) Sylvia Nagginda. Photo Queen Office

In Buganda no cows are given as gifts because they don’t have them but if the Kabaka does have cows, some are sent to the girl’s parents along withbales of bark clothes (embuggo), animal skins, some of his subordinates (who would then become servants of the girl’s parents) and other gifts preferred by him.After the gifts are taken to the girl’s parents the entourage returns to the palace and only on the third visit, is the girl taken to the palace, this visit is referred to as Okunenya (blaming).
During the visit the Kkatikiro and his entourage teasingly accuse the girl’s family of hiding the Kabaka’s wife, saying that she is amongst their daughters and they have no business hiding her in their home, so the entourage pretends to look for the girl and when she is found they then return with her to the Palace.
While all this is happening, the Kabaka also performs some rituals and customs before the marriage date. He visits his mother’s palace and this act is called Okukyala, (the Queen mother is referred to as Nnamasoole), according to tradition, the King and Nnabagereka don’t live together in the same palace in Buganda.
At the Nnamasole’s palace, his maternal uncles will be waiting for him but the Nnamasole leaves because, among the Baganda, parents don’t attend the traditional marriages when children are getting married. His father is not mentioned here because in Buganda the title of Kabaka can only be inherited when the father passes.

Baganda people in their cultural outfits. Men put on Kanzu, and ladies Gomesi. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Vincent kayondo.

His uncles will give him an honor called Mondo (wild cat) and he will also be advised on good governance. This advice is not only wisdom from the uncles but also closely linked to the ancestral spirits.
After Kukyala, the Kabaka performs another ritual known as okuvuma Kabaka. He is taken to amasiiro (royal tombs) and he is made to sit by his father’s grave, his uncles will give him more advice on how to treat the princes and princesses and also how to care for the Kingdom.
After the Kabaka has gone through all this, Mugema who is the person who crowns the Kabaka in Buganda and is also considered the grandfather of Buganda comes in and gives the king an ablution, a ritual cleansing, because the marriage of Kabaka is like a renewal
of his coronation.

View of Kampala. Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in modern-day East Africa, covering the central region of Uganda, including the Ugandan capital, Kampala. File swm

Before Christianity arrived in Uganda, the Buganda kingdom was originally built on the traditional Kiganda religion where they believed in ancestral spirits and worshipped many gods. The Kabaka is considered to be a spirit and human too so on the day of the marriage ceremony, a young virgin girl, called Nnaku, from the Enkima clan (Monkey clan) is brought in to represent the wife of the Kabaka’s spirit.
Nnaku is expected to remain a virgin for the rest of her life until she dies. Kabaka Mutebi’s Nnaku was eight years old at the time of his marriage in 1999.
After Mugema has performed his duty, a big feast is organized in the evening and the celebration of the king’s marriage begins.
In the celebration, the princesses are the main people celebrating, and there will be drumming and singing and dancing and food will be served. The Kabaka is seated holding a shield, in Buganda the shield symbolizes protection which is why the king will hold it during this celebration, he is protecting his family – the Buganda Kingdom.
When Kabaka Daudi Chwa II inherited the crown after his father’s death, Christianity was already introduced in Buganda so after his traditional wedding, he was the first king to take his bride (Nnabagereka) to church for matrimony and since then, after the traditional marriage of the Kabaka, everyone goes to the Anglican church for holy matrimony.
Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi was wed in holy matrimony with Lady Sylvia Nagginda, the current Nnabagereka of Buganda, on 27th August 1999 at St. Paul’s Cathedral Namiremba. (Open Photo: Buganda traditional dance. CC BY-SA 4.0/Tashoya)

Irene Lamunu

Urbanisation and Climate Change in Africa.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

About 53% of Africa’s population lives in rural areas. Six decades ago, it was 85.38 percent. The percentage varies greatly from country to country: 85.58% in Burundi, 83.11 in Niger, 82.28 in Rwanda, 9.27 in Gabon, 18.70 in Libya and 21.62 in Djibouti.

These data show that more and more people are migrating to cities in Africa. The United Nations predicts that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2025. And Africa, together with Asia, will lead to this increase.

Of the 2.5 billion people who will join the world’s urban population, 90% will be concentrated on these two continents. These sources estimate that the tipping point will occur around 2033, when the urban population in Africa surpasses rural areas reaching, by 2050, 60% of the total inhabitants of the continent.

Today, Southern Africa is the most urbanized region on the continent. Northern and Central Africa have more than 50% of people living in cities. West Africa is slowing down but is progressively catching up with other areas.

In this region is Nigeria, with the city of Lagos, home to the largest percentage of the continent’s urban population, and it looks like it will continue to hold this title for a long time, although the metropolis that hosts the largest number of inhabitants is Cairo. Likewise, the Democratic Republic of Congo stands out as a country that will reach 126 million people living in cities by 2050, especially in Kinshasa.

Sixty percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population live in what is known as informal areas, according to the African Cities Research Consortium. And this is where one of the main problems of these cities lies. They reflect the rapid, unplanned and sometimes chaotic growth of cities. These areas are increasingly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Furthermore, they have little, if any, ability to adapt.

It is known that despite having lower emissions and therefore contributing less to global warming, Africa faces serious risks. They threaten to reverse the progress made in recent decades in development or poverty reduction.

The lack of infrastructure to help reduce risks, the high percentage of the continent’s population dependent on natural resources or climatology for their livelihoods, as well as the strangulation of public health services and the low levels of formal education accentuate the risks of a catastrophe. Some analysts predict that by the middle of this century, nearly 80 million Africans will be at risk of starvation, most of them urban dwellers.

We don’t have to wait until 2050. Climate change is already here. It affects African cities stressed by huge floods or recurring droughts. Families, businesses, infrastructure or supply chains are already disrupted by this phenomenon. In the coming decades, this situation will go further. Thus, the sustainable development dreamed of by the SDGs is difficult to achieve in Africa.

Solid waste collection and treatment, recycling, transportation and infrastructure deficiencies, etc., are issues that also filter down through African cities. And despite this, few solutions are offered.

The most appropriate option is that, where possible, African metropolises opt for more sustainable, clean and ecological development. This would make these cities more liveable and resilient to climate change. However, the impression is that most of them are left behind on this path. They choose to give more space to cars, large buildings and development projects that do not take into account respect for the environment.

An example of a person who understood the need to change the way cities are designed is the mayor of Freetown. Torrential rains that normally inundate the city caused a landfall in August 2017 that took the lives of 1,141 citizens and destroyed parts of Sierra Leone’s capital. Once Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr took office, she launched the “Freetown the Treetown” initiative in 2020.

Funded by the sale of carbon credits, 600,000 trees have already been planted in and around the city. Eighty per cent survived. And at the end of this year, we want to reach the figure of one million. This project was accompanied by extensive efforts to clean up Freetown’s streets and upgrade its drainage system. Furthermore, it promoted the use of renewable, particularly photovoltaic, energy.

A bit of an exception, Aki-Sawyerr understood that only the transformation of her city into a more sustainable model that harmonizes its growth with the environment is the only thing that can save it and its inhabitants. (Photo: Kibera on the outskirts of Nairobi. It is one of the largest settlements in Africa. File Swm.

Chema Caballero

Djibouti. Conflicts of Interest.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

The country is closely watching the ongoing tensions in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The small barracks state, dealing with a cumbersome tenant like the USA, risks losing its centrality due to the memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland.

If there is a man who has been touching the hot issues concerning the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa for weeks, it is the president of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh. From the Camp Lemonnier base, the United States conducts attacks in response to the incursions of the Yemeni Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

map: 123rf

A former base of the French Foreign Legion, Camp Lemonnier is a strategic outpost for Africom, the US African Command. Opposite is the strategic Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, where 9% of maritime trade in petroleum products transits.About a hundred miles away is the southwestern Yemeni coast controlled by the Houthis. The headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa is located here. There are approximately 4 thousand units deployed. About ten kilometres to the southwest is the Chabelley airfield, from where F15E fighter bombers take off and Predator MQ-9 Reaper drones take to the skies.
To protect the area, the US has deployed the MIM-104 Patriot tactical defence missile system.

The USA, a Cumbersome Tenant
President Guelleh is struggling to carve out margins of autonomy in relations with this cumbersome tenant. For the time being, Washington has been denied the ability to deploy missile launch systems. Despite being part of Task Force 153, whose objective is to guarantee maritime security in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti did not join Operation Prosperity Guardian, activated by Washington in mid-December and supported on the front line by the United Kingdom to neutralise Houthi attacks and defuse the Iranian response to Israel’s military escalation in the Gaza Strip.

President of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh. Photo: US/ Robert D. Ward

For the moment the only defence measure activated by the Horn of Africa country has been the intensification of patrols by its coastguard to monitor the trade routes that pass near its coasts. Djibouti took an independent position on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, requesting last November – together with South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia and Comoros – the launch of an investigation “on the situation in the state
of Palestine” at the
International Court of Justice.

Relations with Ethiopia and Somaliland
As president of IGAD (the intergovernmental authority for the development of the countries of the Horn of Africa) until next June, Guelleh is trying to highlight the role of mediator of his small barracks state in the various tensions that permeate the region. In the most delicate game, that of the normalisation of relations between Somalia and Somaliland, he was however caught off guard. A few days after receiving the respective presidents, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and Muse Bihi Abdi, in Djibouti to relaunch the talks that had been stuck since 2020, Guelleh witnessed helplessly the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Abdi himself and the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which gives Addis Ababa commercial access to the Gulf of Aden through the port of Berbera, managed by the Emirates giant DP World, and 20 kilometres of coastline in exchange for the recognition of Somaliland as an independent state.
With the creation of a direct corridor between Addis Ababa and Berbera, through Hargeisa and Jijiga, Djibouti now risks seeing heavily reduced revenues from Ethiopian import-export which until now transited towards the Gulf of Aden mainly through its territory.

Djibouti. Camp Lemonnier is a strategic outpost for Africom, the US African Command. File swm

With the achievement of this agreement, Ethiopia would not need to invest in the redevelopment of an old port in Zeilah, in the northwestern tip of Somaliland, and above all, it could aspire to the construction of a military base about one hundred kilometres from the Djibouti border. The outpost would exacerbate tensions in an area of western Somaliland that has long been subject to a territorial dispute between the Issa communities (to which President Guelleh belongs) and the Gadabursis, with direct repercussions on the maintenance of security in Djibouti. After the diplomatic setback suffered, Guelleh ordered the withdrawal of the passports that had been issued to various members of the Somaliland government and called an extraordinary meeting of IGAD in Kampala, where on 18 January the principle of sovereignty and integrity was reaffirmed for the territory of Somalia.

Hargeisa, Somaliland. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 at Freedom Square, Independence Avenue. A Soviet-built fighter plane used by the Somali Air Force in the 1988 bombardments of Hargeisa. CC BY-SA 2.0/ joepyrek.

Internal Tensions
In the most militarized state in the world, there is no shortage of internal tensions. At the end of December, clashes broke out between the Somali and Afar communities in the Warabaley neighbourhood, in the suburb of Balbala, southwest of the capital, with hundreds of people forced to abandon their homes that were set on fire and at least five people killed. A few weeks earlier, near Tadjourah, in the central part of the country, other clashes had occurred between members of the opposition party Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy and the security forces. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Rocco Bellantone

Economy. Oil & Gas and Green hydrogen.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

The government is focusing on green hydrogen to diversify the rapidly growing economy, aiming for growth in the renewable energy sector. The country is among those most suffering from the climate crisis with increasingly frequent and destructive floods and longer
periods of drought.

On the one hand, the prospect of becoming Africa’s third largest gas exporter in a few years, after Nigeria and Algeria; on the other, extreme vulnerability to the effects of climate change. This is the contradictory situation Mauritania is facing in the short and medium term.
It is one of the least densely populated and poorest countries on the African continent: less than 5 million inhabitants live on a territory of 1,030,700 km², of which 2.3 – according to Unicef – live in conditions of multidimensional poverty. The West African state, however, has years of economic growth ahead of it, the International Monetary Fund predicts the +5.1% forecast for 2024 will reach +14.3% in 2025.

The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim is an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Photo: Courtesy by BP p.l.c.

The reason for this giant leap forward can be found in the coming into operation of the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim offshore gas extraction project. The field is located 120 Km off the coast of the country, along the maritime borders shared with Senegal, at a depth of 2,850 metres. Operated by BP and Kosmos Energy, Grand Tortue Ahmeyim will reach full capacity in 2025 and by 2030 could produce 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year.
Europe is eager to find alternatives to Russian gas and is therefore following the development of the project with interest. NJ Ayuk, executive director of the African Energy Chamber (an energy group based in South Africa), explains that around 15 trillion cubic feet of gas could potentially be extracted from the site. “Taking advantage of its strategic location and the strong European demand, the field is perfectly in line with the European Union’s goal of reducing Russian gas imports by two-thirds by the end of 2024,” he comments.
The 100,000 barrels per day Sangomar oil field is expected to come online in 2025. The Sandiara plant is being equipped to obtain electricity from gas and expectations are also increasing regarding the reserves of the BirAllah field, estimated at 80 trillion cubic feet. Additionally, Mauritania’s national oil company is trying to rehabilitate the Banda gas field, which is expected to contain another trillion cubic feet.
Among the most active investors are France and Qatar. “TotalEnergies is conducting exploratory activities,” NJ Ayuk continues, “QatarEnergy in April 2023 had instead finalized the acquisition from Shell of a 40% stake in the C-10 offshore block”, where several sources of oil were found.

Growing Economy
The Nouakchott government expects to collect an Ouguiya equivalent of 20 million dollars (2% of the national GDP) in 2024 and 2.6 billion dollars in 2025, from the exports of gas extracted from the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim. This money alone, however, will not be enough to implement the structural transformation of the economy that the country needs, as reported in the latest Country Diagnostic Note drawn up by the African Development Bank. If it is true that the government, led since 2019 by President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, has so far kept the threat of Jihadist infiltration under control, guaranteeing the country political stability in a region with strong coup traction such as the Sahel, Mauritania must, however, cope with several other age-old problems.

The desert allows agriculture on just 0.5% of arable land over the entire national territory. File smw

The desert allows agriculture on just 0.5% of arable land over the entire national territory. In vast rural areas, access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation services is very low. Energy dependence on fossil fuels and on investments made in the sector by foreign companies, and economic dependence on China, which last August cancelled 18.5 million euros of debt owed by Mauritania, risk keeping the country at a standstill despite the enormous reserves of raw materials at its disposal.

Climate Crisis
Added to this are the devastating effects of the climate crisis, with increasingly frequent and destructive floods and longer periods of drought. Between 2000 and 2021, across sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania was the third country to have suffered the greatest impacts on this front after Somalia and Swaziland.
The World Bank Report “Navigating the Storm – How urbanisation and climate change exacerbate the Risk of flooding in Mauritania”, finds that the damage caused by flooding to infrastructure in the last rainy season cost the country’s economy 3% of its GDP.

The country has been suffering from long periods of drought. File swm

The study underlines that without the adoption of a unified institutional framework that provides for coordinated responses to these emergencies, and without the adoption of a new regulatory system that promotes the development of cities and population centres that are more resilient to climate change, starting from more prudent management of water resources, the ongoing urbanization processes, linked to the gradual growth of the population and the abandonment of rural areas, will come face to face with the fury of the next
natural disasters.

Green Hydrogen
Alongside these policies of adaptation to the climate crisis, interesting growth opportunities are also opening up for the country in the renewable energy sector. Mauritania has around 700 thousand km² of land in which to install solar panels and wind turbines. Overall, there is talk of a potential of 350 gigawatts of energy to be obtained from these sources. The International Energy Agency’s report, “Renewable Energy Opportunities for Mauritania”, indicates that increasing energy generation capacity from renewable sources could help the country reduce the impact of extractive activities which currently cover almost a quarter of its national GDP.
The use of solar and wind power systems to start the energy generators that power mining activities, replacing diesel and heavy fuel oil, would guarantee greater energy security and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For now, however, the interests of foreign companies and governments are focused on green hydrogen.

From right, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould El-Ghazaouani, and President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Photo: European Commission.

In March 2023 the Mauritanian government signed a 34-billion-dollar agreement with Infinity Power Holding, a joint venture between Egyptian Infinity, Emirati Masdar and German Conjuncta GmbH, for the realization of the Aman project which involves the construction of a plant producing 8 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year. “The 15 GW project marks a turning point in the field of African renewables”, NJ Ayuk continues, “TotalEnergies and Chariot are also developing another 10 GW project called Nour”. The European Union also wants to invest in green hydrogen “cultivated” in Mauritania. In a meeting held in Nouakchott at the beginning of February 2024 with President Ghazouani, the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed that member countries will look at the projects in the pipeline in Mauritania to achieve the objective of producing ten million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030 at a national level. The first part of this agreement will be the financing of the new road infrastructure between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, where one of the hubs under development is located. (Illustration:123rf)

Rocco Bellantone

Sister Nelly, a mother for women prisoners.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

For more than twenty-five years, Sr. Nelly Leòn Correa from Chile has accompanied inmates in and outside the prison and created the “Mujer, Levántate” (Woman, Stand Up) Foundation for them. A testimony of faith and courage.

An open smile and eyes that exude sweetness. A sweetness that she inherited from her mother. But at the age of 17, she lost her mother and thought she could not cope with such great pain.
Instead, this suffering would give her the strength to continue. She moved to the capital Santiago and studied to become a religious teacher, living in a rented room.

To support herself, she worked as a maid and then in a laundry. Once she finished her studies, Nelly dedicated herself to teaching the poorest girls and while she carried out this service, she witnessed the abuse of a seven-year-old girl by an adult. The crime would go unpunished and this set Nelly wondering how she could help poor girls and women build a better future, not only economically, but above all in terms of values and spirituality. She began to talk to a priest who suggested a path that she had never considered, the religious vocation.

In the 1980s, without her father’s consent, she joined the Congregation of the Good Shepherd, a community of Catholic nuns who for over two hundred years have dedicated themselves to accompanying women in vulnerable situations, especially those deprived of their freedom.

In 1986 she took her first religious vows. Her first mission was to serve in a shelter for poor girls, many of whom were abandoned, and she remained with them for several years, deeply experiencing motherhood, loving and caring for each girl as a child of her own heart.

In 1999 she was sent to the city of Valparaíso, to accompany women in prison. And although this had always been her great religious dream, behind bars she found a much harsher and more painful reality than she expected. Behind those women, she saw so many broken lives, and so much anguish, to the point that she thought she could no longer continue her work. But her faith, and her great ability to empathize with others, helped her to resist and continue.

In 2005 she returned to the city of Santiago, on a mission to the largest women’s prison in the country. This time her heart broke as she saw the miserable conditions in which the inmates lived and the lack of respect for their dignity. Her impact is so strong that Sister Nelly admits she experienced a profound crisis of faith, questioning how God allowed his daughters to live in such misery. But she didn’t give up.

She decided to listen to those women and get to know them so that they would realise that their lives are important to her, and know that someone in the world cares about them. This also moved her to study for a master’s degree in Psychospiritual Accompaniment, to better respond to the needs of many women wounded by society and
by their own mistakes.

The first fruit of this new challenge was the creation of a shelter for women who are released from prison and who, in order not to fall back into the same mistaken ways, should not return to the places where they committed crimes.

With very few material resources, but with the strength of her conviction, Sister Nelly formed a network of collaborators that eventually gave life to the “Mujer, Levántate” Foundation. What was initially just a temporary reception project, became a permanent service that seeks to empower women in prison so that, when they regain their freedom, they can be better prepared to integrate into society. For this reason, the Foundation is currently working on their personal, relational, psychological, spiritual and work skills.

The impact of the “Mujer, Levántate” programs, which assists 250 women every year, is such that only 6% of those who benefit from this program commit crimes again, while the national re-offending rate is 50 percent. “It is not a personal goal, but that of the professional team that accompanies the girls. When they arrive, they are shattered into pieces and the Foundation tries to put them back together again.”

The meetings with psychologists and social workers are fundamental, but equally so is the embrace of God through the smile, the welcome and the trust that Sister Nelly accords to each one of them when they arrive at the Foundation’s house for their journey of reintegration into society. “It is perhaps the only occasion in which they experience the goodness of the Lord in their lives, despite the mistakes they have made and without being asked for anything in return”, the Sister continues.

Between 2020 and 2021, during the lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, Chilean prisons prohibited people from entering or leaving. Only new inmates could enter. Sister Nelly asked to remain inside the women’s prison in Santiago and spent 18 months there, without ever being able to leave.

Without having been sentenced to any prison sentence, she felt free to live and serve in prison, and became a sister to all women deprived of freedom, experiencing the drama of imprisonment in her flesh, in a spirit of fraternity. Sr Nelly comments: “Having shared imprisonment with the inmates was the most beautiful experience of my life”.

Today, Sr. Nelly is involved in strengthening the projects of the “Mujer, Levántate” Foundation and in expanding the shelter, where women make the transition to civilian life after regaining their freedom. Last February in Abu Dhabi, Sr. Nelly received the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity. (R.L.)
(Photo: Zayed Award for Human Fraternity)

The Asian Faces of Mary.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

Non-Christians venerate Mary in Asia. Mary stands as an interreligious bridge that belongs to everyone. She is the most universal religious figure on the continent. Professor Michael Chamboni, coordinator of the Asian Catholic Studies Initiative, explains why.

At Novena church, the most famous church in Singapore, it is not uncommon to see Muslim and Hindu devotees bringing their petitions to Mary. These non-Catholic visitors come to this shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help for many reasons. Some visitors explain that when they were young, they went to a Catholic school and got in the habit of making vows to the Virgin. They pray according to their religious tradition but keep Mary in their own spiritual life. They do not want to convert to Christianity but value the figure of Mary.

Singapore. The Church of Saint Alphonsus, or Novena Church as it is more popularly known. (facebook)

Hindus and Muslim
Through the many places of pilgrimage, Mary can be found at the centre of the great inter-religious circuits of Asia. In India, for example, thousands of Hindu devotees go to Our Lady of Velankanni (Tamil Nadu), where Mary is said to have appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries, to pray and make vows.
Concerned with health, family, or work issues, these Hindu devotees join Catholic pilgrims to seek help from Mary. They make vows, promise material offerings, specific actions, and hope for progress. Ultimately, these Hindu devotees look after Mary’s capacity to improve things.

Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni, Tamil Nadu. It is known as the Lourdes of the East. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Matthew T Rader

This pan-religious nature of Marian devotions can challenge our understanding of religion. Modern people tend to believe that religions are coherent bodies of doctrines defined by a set of scriptures and a specific clergy. Religions are often presented as a system of beliefs and practices. But with the venerations of Mary by Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist devotees, this supposedly universal definition of religion does not work. Religious practices do not always fit into predefined doctrines
and coherent systems.

Mary in the homes
Mary cannot be reduced to public worship sites. She is the most common religious figure in the domestic sphere. Her statues and images are commonly found inside the living rooms and bedrooms of numerous Asian people. Between the individual heart of people and their public sanctuaries and churches, there is their private home. This space is an essential realm of their religious life.
At home, Mary may escape from regulations promoted by state and religious authorities. This was the case with Maria Kannon in Edo Japan. Today, Jesuit Aristotle Dy reports that inside Chinese-Filipino houses that he visited, Mary can sometimes be found next to a statue of Guanyin. The two receive the same incense offering and are portrayed by her devotees as emanations of the same principle.

Maria Kannon in Edo Japan. Photo: Gemeinfrei/ Iwanafish

In other words, the predominance of Mary within the intimacy of the domestic sphere, where she can coexist with various religious traditions and practices, invites us to question our tendency to reduce religion to its public and compartmentalized display. Simply put, either at home or at public pilgrimage sites, Marian devotees are not easily reducible to their predefined religions. They assert their hopes and needs that are often shaped by religious languages, sociopolitical realities, and cultural habits. Challenging our preconceptions, people draw inspiration from different sources and traditions. For many, religious life is not limited to a system or a social belonging. It is also made of interpersonal relationships with a variety of other-worldly figures.
Subsequently, the variety of these Marian devotions invites us to also reconsider cross-religious hybridity and encounters. If Mary invites us to rethink religion, she also challenges many discourses on interreligious dialogue. In Singapore, India, and Vietnam, some political forces have long promoted an understanding of religions in which the risk for intercommunal violence is always highlighted.
In their eyes, religions make people highly emotional and irrational. Therefore, in highly diverse societies, the state must closely monitor religions and religious leaders to prevent interreligious violence. But this characterization of religions is also a way to reinforce the legitimacy of the state and its control over people. For instance, in Indonesia, interfaith marriages are made illegal by the state.
But pan-religious Marian devotions provide a different understanding of interreligious relations. First, we saw that religions cannot be reduced to predefined and mutually exclusive systems. Lived religions are more creative, mixed, and flexible. Second, Mary shows that faith practitioners can ignore established authorities and official doctrines to cross boundaries without killing each other. Pious people can generate a wide range of cross-religious devotions and pilgrimages to build forms of communion inside socio-religious diversity.

Mary as an interreligious bridge
Despite concerns for narrowly defined orthodoxy, Mary stands as an interreligious bridge that belongs to everyone.
Silently, she is a popular ally to build religious coexistence and prevent intercommunal violence. In practice, she offers an alternative to vertical control and condescendence.
Although the cross-religious nature of Marian devotions may raise legitimate concerns about syncretism, there is a lot to learn from it. The universality of Mary in Asia helps us to revisit the ways we understand religion, interreligious relations, and religious regulations.
Nevertheless, and this will be my final point, this cross-religious nature of Marian devotions may also help us to question our definition of Asian religions. What makes a religion Asian? How is Mary part of this Asianization and de-Asianization of religious traditions?

Mary stands as an interreligious bridge that belongs to everyone. (facebook)

In her book, “Race, Gender, and Religion in the Vietnamese Diaspora”, sociologist Thien-Huong Ninh presents the transformations that Our Lady of La Vang has gone through during the past few decades. This Marian devotion is based on an apparition of Mary in the late 18th century near the village of La Vang (central Vietnam). One intriguing aspect is that until the end of the 20th century, Our Lady of La Vang was represented through artistic features rooted in a European style. Mary looked like a Westerner.
In the late 1990s, however, Vietnamese bishops got inspired by Van Nhan Tran, a U.S.-based Vietnamese artist, and began to promote representations of Our Lady of La Vang wearing traditional Vietnamese outfits such as white traditional clothes (áo dài) and a golden headdress.
Soon, this Vietnamese version of Mary became extremely popular throughout the Vietnamese diaspora and in Vietnam. In the USA, she became the center of the largest Marian pilgrimage in the country. In October 2023, a shrine of our Lady of La Vang was even inaugurated near Fatima, Portugal.

Vietnam. Our Lady of La Vang. (facebook)

Our Lady of La Vang
For some Vietnamese, this version of Our Lady of La Vang is a matter of national pride. Meanwhile, for others, it is a symbol of the harmonious diversity that Catholicism supposedly represents. Her worldwide popularity relates to different political contexts, migratory patterns, and international imaginaries. But Our Lady of La Vang also illustrates the constant remaking of Catholicism as an Asian religion. Despite modern prejudices, the papal religion has long been and continues to recast itself as a religion of Asia. In this process, Mary is an important factor to consider. In conclusion, Marian devotions deserve more than intellectual disdain, pious blindness, or doctrinal reinforcement. If they challenge various ideologies and doctrines, they also remind us that devotional practices are well alive, owned by all, and able to address all sorts of hopes, concerns, and needs.
Despite our necessary dogma, Mary is not easy to capture. Despite our comforting devotions, she is never as immaculate as one may assume. Despite a certain modern push to either marginalize or idealize her role within Christianity, her popularity forces us to re-envision her exact significance.
Asian devotions highlight her centrality to the dialogue that Asian people cultivate with Christian and non-Christian traditions. Mary in Asia remains an intriguing question taking us beyond our comfort zone. With her colorful devotees, she is a challenging figure who invites us to reconsider our religious position and the ways we conceptualize religion, Catholicism, and interfaith dialogue.

A ‘Catholic Toolkit for Young Europeans’ ahead of 2024 EU elections.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

As the 2024 European elections approach, COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union) has released the ‘Catholic Toolkit for Young Europeans’.

This comprehensive toolkit aims to empower young people across Europe to actively engage in the democratic process, guided by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Developed by the COMECE Youth Platform, which brings together Catholic youth organizations active at the EU level, this toolkit includes resources and insights specifically tailored for young people
and youth organizations.

It provides them with essential tools to communicate about the EU elections and navigate the often-unclear context of the upcoming elections. Focusing on encouraging voter participation, the toolkit underscores the importance of civic engagement and the pivotal role of youth in shaping Europe’s future.

“We hope that this tool will be useful for young people and will motivate them to take active part in political life, starting from the coming EU elections. We encourage them to be aware of the importance of their vote as a concrete way to contribute to the European
project that is their future”, says Fr. Manuel Barrios Prieto, General Secretary of COMECE.

The toolkit offers a diverse array of resources, including informative content, reflection questions, and practical guidance on the electoral process. Inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, it motivates young people to reflect on the ethical aspects of their political involvement, emphasising values like solidarity, justice, and human dignity.

Structured into five main sections, each begins with a relevant quote from an Encyclical letter or Apostolic exhortation. The toolkit delves into topics such as politics, citizenship, the Common Good, European identity, and critical thinking. At the end of each section, questions prompt readers to reflect on the material and consider their decisions in light of the upcoming elections.

Additionally, the toolkit offers practical insights into the European election process, including useful links for young people. These resources aim to help them understand how to vote and the impact of the European Union on citizens at the local and regional levels.

With the support of the COMECE Youth Net, the toolkit has been translated into 13 languages. This ensures that all young people can understand its messages and share the materials with their peers.

The COMECE Youth Platform equips young people with the knowledge and resources they need to actively participate in the elections, fostering a culture of active citizenship and democratic participation among Europe’s youth.

Download the toolkit [online – printable]

Music. The soul of Madagascar.

Wednesday, 1 May 2024 8:00

Malagasy music is a rainbow of vivid colours, cheerful and full of rhythm. A mix of traditional folk and modern sounds, it is all there to be heard and experienced.

Madagascar is a land both complicated and wonderful. Inhabited since 2000 BC. by a people coming from Indonesia, it was discovered by the Portuguese in the 16th century; then came the Dutch, the English and the French who made it a protectorate and then a colony in the 19th century. Independence came in 1960, the very year in which, in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital Antananarivo, a certain Paul Bert Rahasimanana was born, destined, with the stage name of Rossy, to become one of the most representative musical icons of his land.

Paul Bert Rahasimanana, more commonly known by his stage name Rossy, is a popular musician in Madagascar. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Sudplanète

Rossy began to receive notice in his early twenties with his music inspired by the songs and style of a band called Mahaleo, popular in the 1970s.Rossy developed his own style following the same recipe: mixing traditional folk with modern sounds by writing songs full of references to the social situation of the country: protest and value-based folk songs not far from those of Bob Dylan but full of references to third world problems.Malagasy music is a rainbow of vivid colours, it is cheerful and full of rhythm; accordions and guitars (including electric) and flutes abound, but also a typical instrument called valiha, a kind of zither made with large bamboo canes whose strings are made from bark threads of the same plant.

A valiha player. The valiha is a tube zither made from a species of local bamboo; it is considered the “national instrument” of Madagascar. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Rob Hooft

The first to establish themselves on the international scene were Les Surf, active between ’63 and ’71, especially in French-speaking countries; but if Les Surf imitated the pop and yeyè groups in vogue at the time, Rossy, like his inspirers, brought to the West the authenticity of a musical tradition still almost unknown outside his homeland.
Thanks, above all to the global rock star Peter Gabriel who at the beginning of the Nineties published his second album Island of Ghosts on his Real World label and the following one, with the emblematic title of One Eye on the Future, One Eye on the Past. With modern music – known as Salegy in Malagasy – which had its main exponent in Eugene Jaojoby, Rossy and his songs revealed the same overwhelming communicative force – almost impossible to listen to while standing still – but with an elegant and modern approach attributable to the best worldwide music and at the same time transcending mere entertainment to become a profound expression of the culture of its people. (Open Photo: Young Malagasy woman with a child.123rf)

Franz Corlasco

Iran. Ayatollahs, bombs & Barbies.

Monday, 1 April 2024 8:00

Democratic states are all alike; every autocratic state is autocratic in its own way. Democracies are alike in featuring universal suffrage, striving for a body of robust accountable institutions and political practice, and sustaining a vibrant civil society. Autocracies, however, have strikingly distinctive features.

Take Iran and China. Despite common features for example, Iran like China now wants spies to harass and report back on dissidents in the UK and alternates brutal repression of dissent with reform and diplomatic activity. Putin, of course, brazenly carries out political assassinations of exiles, and opposition leaders such as Alexei Navalny. But Iran’s religious history has created its own unique political dynamics.

Reformists can become President in Iran. Towards the end of Muhammad Khatami’s time as Iran’s President, 1997-2005, I used to visit Tehran for formal sessions of interfaith dialogue, a rare opportunity to observe the interaction of religion and politics. In 2003, seeking better relations with the USA, Khatami offered G.W. Bush a “grand bargain deal” signed off by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

Prolonged behind-the-scenes negotiations at the UN had led the Iranians, in return for the lifting of debilitating economic sanctions, to offer to end support for Hamas and to pressure Hezbollah to stand down its military wing. A way would have been opened for Iran to join the WTO. Bush did not reply – arguably a costly lost opportunity.

President Reagan went on a six-day visit to China in 1984. In comparison, after the capture of diplomat hostages during the revolutionary fervour of Ayatollah Khomeini’s takeover in 1979, and after the West’s support for Iraq in the war against Iran (1980-1988), the Islamic Republic became what might be called the USA’s official enemy.

Bush, who included Iran alongside North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in his “axis of evil”, was in thrall to a neo-con clique, led by his Vice-President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense). They were pushing for regime change and had destabilisation plans. Iran was not about to be visited by a US President.

The Iranian State, its constitution, politics and power structures, are complex, opaque and sui generis. The Foreign Minister, for example, is appointed by the President, but the Judiciary and Supreme Court by the Supreme Leader, the name given to Ayatollah Khomeini and his successor. Ali Khamenei (84), the ultra-authoritarian Supreme Leader for 35 years since 1989, with the IRCG, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as his military base, can block Presidential initiatives.
The constitution makes tension between elected and religious
authority inevitable.

Both President Khatami and President Hassan Rouhani 2013-2021, who had studied in Britain, were by Iranian standards reformists. They were both succeeded by hardliners. The White House was partly to thank for provoking reactionary policy change. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mayor of Tehran, who followed Khatami in 2005, was something of a religious fanatic, anti-American and anti-Israel. Ebrahim Raisi, elected President in 2021 after Rouhani, was a protégé of the Supreme Leader and a former member of a four-man prosecution committee which in 1988, according to Amnesty International, executed political prisoners in their thousands, many by hanging from cranes.

Whilst President, Rouhani achieved a major diplomatic breakthrough. In 2015 The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Acton (JCPOA) limited Iran’s development of nuclear power to peaceful purposes – as had Khatami when President. Signed by China, Russia, France, Germany, UK, the EU and the USA, the agreement gave Rouhani a timetable for the lifting of sanctions which had been wrecking Iran’s economy.

At a reception in London a few years ago I asked former President Khatami about Shi’a teaching on nuclear weapons. ‘Haram’ (forbidden) he said. ‘Haram for use?’ I queried. ‘Haram for use and possession’, he replied with emphasis in English. We await the day Patriarch Kirill of Moscow declares that Russia’s nuclear weapons are forbidden.

A Guardian Council appointed by the Supreme Leader selects nominees for the Presidential elections. In 2017, Ibrahim Raisi, by then Chief Justice of Iran, stood against Rouhani who was seeking a second term and was trounced getting 38% of the vote against Rouhani’s 57% on a 73% voter turnout with 3% of votes invalid. But in 2021 Raisi won the presidential elections with 62% of the vote on a 48% – post-revolution lowest – turn-out with 13% of the votes invalid.

What had happened in the interim? Trump had happened: providing a damaging example of American impact on Iran’s internal affairs. After only a few months in office, Trump refused certification for lifting sanctions on Iran and, on 8 May 2018, withdrew from the JPCOA. Rouhani and the reformers were discredited, the hardliners rejoiced, Raisi had a virtually clear run at the presidency, the centrifuges whirled away again seeking to produce enough weapons grade uranium for a bomb. The American neo-cons had undermined the Iranian reformers.

What of Iranian civil society? The world witnessed mass protests in 2022-2023 after Mahsa Amini died from police beating. The women and men of Women, Life, Freedom, were brutally repressed by Raisi’s murderous security apparatus. The protesters’ courageous defiance and greater numbers than those facing Putin’s mafia in Russia shocked the Iranian government. Iran’s civil society has paid a high price for Bush and Trump’s policies. Iranian foreign and external security policy may have positive nationalist support and tacit approval.

Iranian culture is, of course, strikingly different from that of China and Russia. I witnessed a telling little cultural clash between Iran’s governed and government in 2002. To counteract the attraction and influence of western Barbie dolls the religious authorities announced the launch of Iranian dolls, Dara and Sara, dressed in traditional fashion in keeping with Islamic values.

Guided by the wife of a friend I plunged into the Tehran bazaar, crowded with women, black hijabs and chadors all around, intending to buy the new dolls to take home for the grandchildren. I discovered a silent revolt against the velayat e-faqih, the rule of the mullahs. No Dara and Sara. Lots of Barbies.

Weeks after my return home a letter arrived inviting me to the Iranian embassy. I had written an article critical of Iran’s human rights record ending on a light note with my failed quest for Dara and Sara. I guessed a ban on future entry to Iran awaited me. At the Embassy I was ushered into a large hall and seated at an isolated table with a covering cloth and flowers – hiding a microphone I assumed. There, as I expected, my host upbraided me at length for my ‘negativity about Iran’. Then he lifted the tablecloth and presented me with Dara and Sara. Urbane, unexpected and sophisticated diplomacy.

Today Iran is in the hands of particularly dangerous hardline characters. But in the future, there may be more opportunities for liberalising change than in other autocracies. For this is not Putin’s Russia or Xi’s China. There are still Khatamis and Rouhanis in the wings. Twenty years ago, the autocratic, black and traditional world of Dara and Sara could dialogue with the democratic, pink and modern world of Barbie. Let’s hope one day another opportunity for dialogue and negotiation will arise and not be thrown away – however bleak the picture is today.(Photo:The various kinds of local-style dolls are sold in the Grand Bazaar Market Imam Square of Isfahan for tourists as souvenirs. These dolls dress up like an Iranian people. Shutterstock/ Chaton Chokpatara)

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

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